My wife took her wheel or her loom, both of which
I had made for her, for this kind of work fell to her share from
choice. By the help of the wheels of one of the ship's guns I had made
a lathe, and with this I could turn legs for stools and chairs. Ernest,
too, was fond of the lathe, and soon learned to do such work quite as
well as I.
At dusk, when we had done our work for the day, we brought out our
stock of books, and sat down to read by the light of a lamp.
At times, Jack and Prank would play a tune on their flutes, which I had
made out of reeds; and my wife, who had a sweet voice, would sing some
of the old Swiss songs, that brought to our minds the joys of home.
Though we were by no means dull, nor in want of work to fill up our
time, we were glad when the time came for the rain to cease, and when
we could gaze once more on the green fields. We went out the first fine
day, and took a long walk by the base of the cliff. On the shore we
found a dead whale, which the sea had no doubt thrown up in the storm.
We had long felt the need of oil; for though we had a lamp, we had
naught but our wax lights to put in it, and these gave a poor light to
read by. The next day we cut up the whale, and put the flesh in tubs.
It was far from a clean job, for the oil ran down our clothes and made
them smell; but as we could change them for new ones, thanks to the
hemp and my wife's skill, we did not mind that, for the oil was now
worth more to us than our clothes, though at one time we should not
have thought so.
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